Plebeians' Union

Plebeians' Union (Zwiazek Plebejuszy) A Polish
conspiratorial, radical society founded in 1842 in Poznan by the
bookseller Walenty Stefanski. When the secret Central Coordinating
Committee (Centralization), associated with the Polish Democratic
Society was being established in the early 1840s, Stefanski was
ignored, following which he began organizing another conspiracy
based on petty bourgeoisie and peasantry. Among his most active
collaborators were the miller Jozef Esman; Jozef Lipinski, a
locksmith; Franciszek Trojanowski, a city office employee; and a
peasant, Maciej Palacz. Associated with the union were the
Wiarusy, an organization grouping secondary school
students and artisan apprentices. The union's objective was to
liberate Poland through a popular armed insurrection. Private
property rights were to be suspended for the period of insurrection
and the landholdings turned over to the county economic committees.
The committees were to fulfill self-government and administrative
roles and to direct distribution of goods and labor. The system
was basically regarded as a temporary one, return of the individual
private property rights being envisaged for after the victory
unless the society voted otherwise. Beside egalitarian and
anti-noble elements, the union's program strongly accentuated
religious issues, protection of the Catholic church being one of
the union's goals. The union was growing particularly rapidly in
1843, when its influences widened to Bydgoszcz and Torun, the
Wiarusy setting up their units in Chojnice, Olesnica, and Wroclaw.
Several Polish soldiers of the Poznan garrison joined in and
collaborated with members of conspiratorial organizations in the
Congress Kingdom, led by Edward Dembowski. He took advantage of
his contacts with the union to press the Poznan Centralization and
led Stefanski into an alliance with a radical factional group of
Adolf Malczewski. A joint armed action of the union and
Malczewski's group was planned for the beginning of 1844 and aimed
at taking Poznan and Torun, forming an army, and starting an
insurrection in the Congress Kingdom. The plan was, however,
voided by the fact that Malczewski and his collaborators were
arrested, but preparations for the rising continued, undeterred by
arrests of about forty Wiarusy members in the night of
February 23-24, 1845. During subsequent months, the union expanded
its influences by recruiting several priests and village teachers
who helped to spread the action in villages. The growing
organization became a significant competitor for the
Centralization. At this juncture, Stefanski undertook to overthrow
the latter and form a single all-Poland revolutionary committee.
The plans were brought to an end when Stefanski was arrested in the
night of November 8-9, 1845, following which a number of his
collaborators were arrested as well. The leadership was taken over
by J. Esman who submitted the union to the Centralization and
became one of its leaders. Members of the Plebeians' Union, both
those arrested in 1845 and those detained after the Centralization
had been dispersed in 1846, were tried during the Berlin trials in
1847.
Przemyslaw Matusik